Jul. 6th, 2007

11:40 am - Ron Paul has more cash on hand than McCain

Comments:

Interesting point. Logically deduced. But wouldn't someone who repudiates an entire philosophy be more threatening? There's a reason 90% of americans say they won't vote for an atheist while more than half are willing to vote for someone of a different faith.

During the inquisition people were often condemned as atheists even though you espoused a belief in a god. Just a different one.

See, you're taking all the fun out of my attempt at diatribe along the counterintuitive line of thought. Hmph. :P

That 90% of americans wouldn't vote for a candidate espousing religious views utterly contrary to their own... well that's just boringly obvious.

So yes, you're right of course. Spoilsport.

But that said, I don't follow your point about the inquisitions. In all four of the major inquisitions, people who were devout Catholics could be condemned for relatively minor heresies. In fact, during most of these periods, due to legalities involved, the Catholic church only had jurisdiction over baptized members of the Church. Non-Christians were instead typically tried in the secular courts, as were those accused of witchcraft.

And it wasn't like you'd be made dead for, say, being a Gnostic, but made "even deader" for being an outright atheist. Particular inquisition periods had their own favorite whipping boys, e.g. recent converts from Hinduism during the Portuguese inquisition. But from what I've read, all of them tended to stray into the realm of eliminating all sorts of political undesirables, regardless of how minor the charges of heresy they trumped up.